Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.
Children are the Lord's own possession given to parents as a gift and trust, not personal property to do with as they please. They are His twice over, because He created them and because Christ bought them with His own life and blood. Parents and teachers are therefore answerable to God for how they feed, instruct, train and manage them, with their present welfare and eternal future depending largely on that care. That charge is to bring them up in the Lord's nurture to obey God and keep His commandments, forming characters after the divine pattern that fit them to serve Him now and to live with Him forever. Because they are God's heritage they must be trained from infancy with respect, kindness, patience and self-control rather than harshness or tyranny, by precept and example that leads them to Christ.
Heritage Means Ownership
Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord, a gift entrusted to parents to be raised in his instruction and in reverence for him. They belong to the Lord as his heritage, not to parents as personal property to do with as they like. Father and mother are to work together in that charge, with patient tenderness and loving correction and discipline free from anger or revenge, beginning the training of obedience in infancy. Their solemn responsibility is to educate, train and discipline them with special instruction and guidance, under God's rule and according to his Word, so they form characters the Lord can approve, since their future destiny depends largely on that care. Parents have no right to make them unhappy by coarseness or unkindness where God's angels dwell, but must treat them with kindness and teach them by both example and instruction to be kind and gentle, helping them prepare at home for the heavenly mansions.
They are his property twice over, because he created them and because Christ has purchased them with his own life and blood. As his blood-bought heritage, bought and paid for by the life of God's only-begotten Son, soul, body and spirit are absolutely the Lord's property, and children must often be taught so. They are therefore to be educated, trained and sanctified for the Master's service, to please God in the Lord's nurture and admonition, because Jesus has a claim on all he ransomed by giving his own life. That work is the first great consideration of life for parents, guardians and teachers, to be done by precept and example in repeating the lessons Christ gave his disciples for the world, with the salvation of parents and children in view, while heavenly beings watch how the stewardship of care and treatment is fulfilled. Parents who see the eternal interests involved will labor diligently in home life to teach that loveliness of Christlike character is of far greater value than money, outward adorning, or making money, that they may live happy, useful lives honoring the Lord and helping those around them.
The fruit of the womb is his reward, a gift from God given to increase the experience and happiness of parents. The birth of a child also adds responsibility to the family, bringing the work of discipline by which parents become more useful in teaching their children to be Christ's children and so increase their influence for good. They are entrusted not as hindrances to spiritual growth but to be educated into useful, well-rounded characters and prepared from childhood to serve and please the Lord. The Lord loves them as his heritage. Their upbringing should fit them to meet family trials through Christ's grace and to witness to a careless, Christless world that their Saviour did not die for them in vain.
Their abilities and influence can become a power for good and bring glory to God when guided by the Holy Spirit, so parents are responsible for training and educating them to serve as God's coworkers, for usefulness here and for heaven hereafter. God does not desire the death of little children, and their removal is not a mysterious providence. Much of the misery and ruin, disease and early death that come upon the race might be prevented, because the power to deal with these evils rests to a great degree with parents by giving their children a good inheritance and then by right management seeking to remedy any wrong conditions of their birth.
Entrusted and Accountable
Parents and teachers hold a solemn and sacred duty to educate and train children for God, and to neglect that work is to prove unfaithful servants. Children are a gift entrusted by the Lord to be raised in His instruction and in reverence for Him, with father and mother working together in patient tenderness, loving correction, and discipline free from anger or revenge, beginning obedience in infancy. They are to be given to the Lord and educated and trained to serve Him and to be prepared to be accepted as members of the heavenly royal family. When the seed of truth is sown early in a child's heart and carefully tended, the labor bears fruit with reward, and those prayed and worked for will be gathered into the heavenly harvest, since their future destiny depends largely on that faithful care.
Parents are answerable to God for their management of this entrusted gift, for how they treat, feed, instruct, train, guide, and care for them. Because children are the Lord's property, purchased by the blood of His only-begotten Son, parents, guardians, and teachers are responsible for their care and treatment, and heavenly beings watch how they fulfill that stewardship. They must not be left to follow a wrong course, but must be given proper attention and guided wisely in the Lord's nurture and admonition, protected from harmful appetites and given godly care. Harsh or careless discipline can turn children from religion and divine authority, with harmful effects passing from parent to child, and injustice or oppression of a child is counted as done to God Himself.
Neglect of family discipline, nurture, and training dishonors God, and because the children's life now and eternal future are at stake, such neglect will testify against parents at Christ's judgment seat. Children belong to God and not to parents as personal property, so parents are responsible for training them from infancy to follow His ways and bringing them up in the Lord's nurture and admonition. That work requires diligent, vigilant instruction with an eye single to God's glory, kindly and patiently leading them step by step to love, fear, honor, and trust God, strictly guarding each soul so Satan does not deceive and allure them away, and restraining bad tendencies and tempers. In this parents cooperate with God and God cooperates with them in saving the souls for whom Christ died, and He will work with every effort made along these lines.
If one child in the family is unconscious of his sinful state and lost to God, parents must not rest but must labor diligently for the recovery of that soul. They must light the candle by searching the word of God and by its light diligently examine everything in the home to see why the child is lost. They must search their own hearts and examine their habits, practices, and management to find any mistake or error by which that soul is confirmed in impenitence.
Aim of Upbringing
Children are to be educated in the Lord's nurture and admonition to obey God and keep His commandments, forming characters after the divine model that He can approve. They belong to the Lord as His heritage and are to be given to Him and trained and disciplined for His service, a solemn and sacred duty laid upon parents and teachers that must not be neglected, for neglect makes them unfaithful servants. Because Christ has purchased them they are His property, to be educated to please God and trained to serve Him. When the seed of truth is sown early in a child's heart and carefully tended, the labor bears fruit with reward, and those prayed and worked for will be gathered into the heavenly harvest.
That training prepares them to serve God as His coworkers now and to be accepted as members of the heavenly royal family, fitted for heaven and for eternal life. Parents are entrusted with the solemn obligation to train them for God, bringing them to Christ and preparing them through the example and instruction of home life for a place in Christ's eternal school and for the heavenly mansions. This is done by teaching them both by example and by instruction to be kind and gentle, with no coarseness, unkindness, tyranny, or unhappiness where God's angels dwell, but with tender care for the character formed in them for faithful service to Him. So prepared at home, they are fitted for heaven, for the city of God, and for the possibility of eternal life.
Rightly educated, they become standard-bearers in the Lord's army, witnesses for Christ, and missionary workers enlisted to help the sick and suffering and to take part in carrying God's message. In homes shaped by God's plan and in church schools ordained by God for this purpose, they are to be instructed in the special truths for this time and in practical missionary and medical missionary work, where even their small investments and jots and tittles win souls to the truth. Thus trained, they will in simplicity speak astonishing words as witnesses for Christ, their voices raised to make God's message known and His saving health to all nations, proclaiming saving truth and giving the last message of warning to a perishing world and doing a work in proclaiming truth when the way of older workers is hedged up. To this end they must be placed under the most direct and favorable influences, with choice teachers who have learned meekness and lowliness of heart in Christ's school, who study from cause to effect, and who are patient, kind, sympathetic and impartial, doing toward students exactly as Jesus would do, with no harshness and no partiality.
They are entrusted to parents not as hindrances to spiritual growth but to be educated into useful, well-rounded characters and prepared from childhood to serve and please the Lord. They are to be disciplined, educated, and trained to carry their share of family duties, beginning with light burdens in their early years. Their upbringing should fit them by Christ's grace to meet family trials and to witness to a careless, Christless world that their Saviour did not die for them in vain.
They must often be taught that soul, body, and spirit are absolutely the Lord's property, bought and paid for by the life and blood of the Son of God, who has a claim on all He ransomed by giving His own life. That work is to be done by precept and example, repeating the lessons Christ gave His disciples for the world, with the salvation of parents and children as the first great consideration of life, educating, training, and sanctifying them for the Master's service. Parents who see the eternal interests involved will labor diligently in home life to teach that loveliness of Christlike character is of far greater value than money or outward adorning, and that forming such a character matters more than making money. He desires them so taught to live happy, useful lives that honor the Lord and help those around them.
Training with Love
Because they are the Lord's heritage, children are to be treated with respect, kindness, patience, courtesy, tenderness and self-control, and never to be harshly ordered about, scolded, beaten, tyrannized, or governed with a high hand. Parents have no right to make them unhappy, but are to help them prepare at home for heaven and for the heavenly mansions, with no coarseness or unkindness where God's angels dwell. Their upbringing calls for patient tenderness, loving correction, and discipline free from anger or revenge, with father and mother working together to raise them in the Lord's instruction and in reverence for Him. Those who are themselves under God's discipline should change their home conduct, commend effort, and not make children unhappy, for harsh or careless discipline can turn them from religion and divine authority, with harmful effects that pass from parent to child. That kindness rests on solemn accountability, for parents are answerable to God for how they raise what is entrusted to them, since the children's future destiny depends largely on that faithful care.
The work is done by precept and example, with parents teaching by both instruction and the life they live in order to prepare children for heaven. Their words, conduct, and manners help shape the children's character and habits for life, and they are to guide them by the example they set with patience and kindness. A mother's faithful instruction, discipline, and godly example can lead her children to Christ and help them influence others for good, while neglect can leave them with harmful traits and influence that spread through families, society, and the church. That home education repeats the lessons Christ gave His disciples for the world, with the salvation of parents and children as the first great consideration of life, educating, training, and sanctifying them for the Master's service.
Training must begin in infancy, even in babyhood and in the first months, which are the most important period for bringing the child under control. Both father and mother must unite in requiring obedience always, teaching subjection to parents, repressing self-will, and shaping character through training and education in the earliest years. Letting the infant hold the lines and bend parents to its freaks and whims gives control to Satan, who understands the situation and works to take possession of the child's temper and disposition. They belong to God and not to parents as personal property, and this responsibility concerns their lives now and their eternal future, so that neglecting it will testify against parents at Christ's judgment seat.
They are to be kindly and patiently instructed, disciplined, and led step by step to Jesus, learning to love, fear, honor, trust, and obey God. God's Word is the light and instrument for that teaching, forming trust, obedience, and godly character as they are brought up in the Lord's nurture and admonition. That instruction must be diligent and vigilant, with an eye single to the glory of God, strictly guarding the interest of each soul, restraining bad tendencies and bad tempers, so that Satan does not deceive and allure them away from Christ. If one child in the family is unconscious of his sinful state, parents must not rest but search the word of God and by its light diligently examine everything in the home, searching their own hearts and examining their habits, practices, and management to find any mistake or error by which that soul is confirmed in impenitence. In this work parents cooperate with God and God cooperates with them in saving the souls of the children for whom Christ died, while Christian homes that neglect family discipline and training dishonor Him.
Care includes the body, for a mother has a duty to her children that requires preserving her health to care for them, and father and mother are accountable for how they treat, feed, instruct, and train them, including protecting them from harmful appetites and giving them godly care. Much of the misery and ruin, disease and early death that come upon the race might be prevented, for the power to deal with these evils rests to a great degree with parents by giving their children a good inheritance and then by right management seeking to remedy any wrong conditions of their birth; God does not desire the death of little children, and their removal is not a mysterious providence. Students also, as God's children entrusted to their keepers, must be cared for accordingly, including by providing them with good, solid, nourishing food prepared by thorough, hygienic cooking. No one person's ideas, tastes, customs, or habits are to control the table, and capable helpers under a matron in the kitchen with the very best thorough cook are to supply substantial food rather than much liquid food, pastries, and desserts prepared after European hotel fashion.
Church Shares the Charge
Children are the Lord's heritage, the lambs of the flock, and that trust belongs not to parents alone but also to the church, which must carry a burden for them and educate and train them to do service for God. Church schools are ordained by God for this purpose, to instruct children in the special truths for this time and in practical missionary work. There they are to be enlisted in the army of workers to help the sick and the suffering and to take part in medical missionary work, where even small investments and jots and tittles win souls to the truth. Rightly educated in this way they become standard-bearers in the army of the Lord and missionaries for the Master, placed under the most direct and favorable influences so their nurture, education, and training are not neglected.
That charge requires schools connected with choice teachers who have learned meekness and lowliness of heart in the school of Christ. Such teachers study from cause to effect and are patient, kind, sympathetic and impartial, doing toward students exactly as they would be done by and as Jesus would act, with no harshness and no partiality. College students too are God's heritage of children entrusted to those who care for them, a charge larger than one's own family that demands the highest care. Because they belong to God, no one person's ideas or tastes or customs or habits are to control the boarding-house table. Those in charge must obtain the very best thorough cook with a thorough knowledge of hygienic cooking, with capable helpers under a matron in the kitchen, and give students who pay for their board good solid nourishing food that supports their best work and takes away the very best intelligence of what hygienic cooking means, rather than much liquid food, pastries, and desserts prepared after European hotel fashion which are not proper food for hungry students with keen appetites for the most substantial food.
Their value was shown when Christ took little children in His arms and blessed them, so a forbidding attitude toward them displeases the Lord and they should be welcomed and cared for. The Lord loves them and died for them, and He is ready to do a great work for them if parents cooperate with Him in training and educating them according to His instruction. God honors the young and can use them for special work, choosing Joseph in youth, accepting Samuel when dedicated by his mother and giving the boy a solemn message while passing by the aged priest who failed to train his children, and holding up the childhood character of John the Baptist as encouragement to parents. The church must therefore remember Christ's words and example and must help and encourage mothers of children by praying with and for them.
To bring children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord is the greatest missionary work parents can perform, and the mother entrusted with them as the Lord's beautiful flock has a greater work than the king on his throne. Training them for His service is a solemn and sacred duty that parents and teachers must not neglect, since neglect makes them unfaithful servants. When the seed of truth is sown early in a child's heart and carefully tended, the labor bears fruit and there is a reward. Those prayed and worked for will be gathered into the heavenly harvest.
Children are the Lord's own possession given to parents as a gift and trust, not personal property to do with as they please. They are His twice over, because He created them and because Christ bought them with His own life and blood. Parents and teachers are therefore answerable to God for how they feed, instruct, train and manage them, with their present welfare and eternal future depending largely on that care. That charge is to bring them up in the Lord's nurture to obey God and keep His commandments, forming characters after the divine pattern that fit them to serve Him now and to live with Him forever. Because they are God's heritage they must be trained from infancy with respect, kindness, patience and self-control rather than harshness or tyranny, by precept and example that leads them to Christ.
Heritage Means Ownership
Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord, a gift entrusted to parents to be raised in his instruction and in reverence for him. They belong to the Lord as his heritage, not to parents as personal property to do with as they like. Father and mother are to work together in that charge, with patient tenderness and loving correction and discipline free from anger or revenge, beginning the training of obedience in infancy. Their solemn responsibility is to educate, train and discipline them with special instruction and guidance, under God's rule and according to his Word, so they form characters the Lord can approve, since their future destiny depends largely on that care. Parents have no right to make them unhappy by coarseness or unkindness where God's angels dwell, but must treat them with kindness and teach them by both example and instruction to be kind and gentle, helping them prepare at home for the heavenly mansions.
They are his property twice over, because he created them and because Christ has purchased them with his own life and blood. As his blood-bought heritage, bought and paid for by the life of God's only-begotten Son, soul, body and spirit are absolutely the Lord's property, and children must often be taught so. They are therefore to be educated, trained and sanctified for the Master's service, to please God in the Lord's nurture and admonition, because Jesus has a claim on all he ransomed by giving his own life. That work is the first great consideration of life for parents, guardians and teachers, to be done by precept and example in repeating the lessons Christ gave his disciples for the world, with the salvation of parents and children in view, while heavenly beings watch how the stewardship of care and treatment is fulfilled. Parents who see the eternal interests involved will labor diligently in home life to teach that loveliness of Christlike character is of far greater value than money, outward adorning, or making money, that they may live happy, useful lives honoring the Lord and helping those around them.
The fruit of the womb is his reward, a gift from God given to increase the experience and happiness of parents. The birth of a child also adds responsibility to the family, bringing the work of discipline by which parents become more useful in teaching their children to be Christ's children and so increase their influence for good. They are entrusted not as hindrances to spiritual growth but to be educated into useful, well-rounded characters and prepared from childhood to serve and please the Lord. The Lord loves them as his heritage. Their upbringing should fit them to meet family trials through Christ's grace and to witness to a careless, Christless world that their Saviour did not die for them in vain.
Their abilities and influence can become a power for good and bring glory to God when guided by the Holy Spirit, so parents are responsible for training and educating them to serve as God's coworkers, for usefulness here and for heaven hereafter. God does not desire the death of little children, and their removal is not a mysterious providence. Much of the misery and ruin, disease and early death that come upon the race might be prevented, because the power to deal with these evils rests to a great degree with parents by giving their children a good inheritance and then by right management seeking to remedy any wrong conditions of their birth.
Entrusted and Accountable
Parents and teachers hold a solemn and sacred duty to educate and train children for God, and to neglect that work is to prove unfaithful servants. Children are a gift entrusted by the Lord to be raised in His instruction and in reverence for Him, with father and mother working together in patient tenderness, loving correction, and discipline free from anger or revenge, beginning obedience in infancy. They are to be given to the Lord and educated and trained to serve Him and to be prepared to be accepted as members of the heavenly royal family. When the seed of truth is sown early in a child's heart and carefully tended, the labor bears fruit with reward, and those prayed and worked for will be gathered into the heavenly harvest, since their future destiny depends largely on that faithful care.
Parents are answerable to God for their management of this entrusted gift, for how they treat, feed, instruct, train, guide, and care for them. Because children are the Lord's property, purchased by the blood of His only-begotten Son, parents, guardians, and teachers are responsible for their care and treatment, and heavenly beings watch how they fulfill that stewardship. They must not be left to follow a wrong course, but must be given proper attention and guided wisely in the Lord's nurture and admonition, protected from harmful appetites and given godly care. Harsh or careless discipline can turn children from religion and divine authority, with harmful effects passing from parent to child, and injustice or oppression of a child is counted as done to God Himself.
Neglect of family discipline, nurture, and training dishonors God, and because the children's life now and eternal future are at stake, such neglect will testify against parents at Christ's judgment seat. Children belong to God and not to parents as personal property, so parents are responsible for training them from infancy to follow His ways and bringing them up in the Lord's nurture and admonition. That work requires diligent, vigilant instruction with an eye single to God's glory, kindly and patiently leading them step by step to love, fear, honor, and trust God, strictly guarding each soul so Satan does not deceive and allure them away, and restraining bad tendencies and tempers. In this parents cooperate with God and God cooperates with them in saving the souls for whom Christ died, and He will work with every effort made along these lines.
If one child in the family is unconscious of his sinful state and lost to God, parents must not rest but must labor diligently for the recovery of that soul. They must light the candle by searching the word of God and by its light diligently examine everything in the home to see why the child is lost. They must search their own hearts and examine their habits, practices, and management to find any mistake or error by which that soul is confirmed in impenitence.
Aim of Upbringing
Children are to be educated in the Lord's nurture and admonition to obey God and keep His commandments, forming characters after the divine model that He can approve. They belong to the Lord as His heritage and are to be given to Him and trained and disciplined for His service, a solemn and sacred duty laid upon parents and teachers that must not be neglected, for neglect makes them unfaithful servants. Because Christ has purchased them they are His property, to be educated to please God and trained to serve Him. When the seed of truth is sown early in a child's heart and carefully tended, the labor bears fruit with reward, and those prayed and worked for will be gathered into the heavenly harvest.
That training prepares them to serve God as His coworkers now and to be accepted as members of the heavenly royal family, fitted for heaven and for eternal life. Parents are entrusted with the solemn obligation to train them for God, bringing them to Christ and preparing them through the example and instruction of home life for a place in Christ's eternal school and for the heavenly mansions. This is done by teaching them both by example and by instruction to be kind and gentle, with no coarseness, unkindness, tyranny, or unhappiness where God's angels dwell, but with tender care for the character formed in them for faithful service to Him. So prepared at home, they are fitted for heaven, for the city of God, and for the possibility of eternal life.
Rightly educated, they become standard-bearers in the Lord's army, witnesses for Christ, and missionary workers enlisted to help the sick and suffering and to take part in carrying God's message. In homes shaped by God's plan and in church schools ordained by God for this purpose, they are to be instructed in the special truths for this time and in practical missionary and medical missionary work, where even their small investments and jots and tittles win souls to the truth. Thus trained, they will in simplicity speak astonishing words as witnesses for Christ, their voices raised to make God's message known and His saving health to all nations, proclaiming saving truth and giving the last message of warning to a perishing world and doing a work in proclaiming truth when the way of older workers is hedged up. To this end they must be placed under the most direct and favorable influences, with choice teachers who have learned meekness and lowliness of heart in Christ's school, who study from cause to effect, and who are patient, kind, sympathetic and impartial, doing toward students exactly as Jesus would do, with no harshness and no partiality.
They are entrusted to parents not as hindrances to spiritual growth but to be educated into useful, well-rounded characters and prepared from childhood to serve and please the Lord. They are to be disciplined, educated, and trained to carry their share of family duties, beginning with light burdens in their early years. Their upbringing should fit them by Christ's grace to meet family trials and to witness to a careless, Christless world that their Saviour did not die for them in vain.
They must often be taught that soul, body, and spirit are absolutely the Lord's property, bought and paid for by the life and blood of the Son of God, who has a claim on all He ransomed by giving His own life. That work is to be done by precept and example, repeating the lessons Christ gave His disciples for the world, with the salvation of parents and children as the first great consideration of life, educating, training, and sanctifying them for the Master's service. Parents who see the eternal interests involved will labor diligently in home life to teach that loveliness of Christlike character is of far greater value than money or outward adorning, and that forming such a character matters more than making money. He desires them so taught to live happy, useful lives that honor the Lord and help those around them.
Training with Love
Because they are the Lord's heritage, children are to be treated with respect, kindness, patience, courtesy, tenderness and self-control, and never to be harshly ordered about, scolded, beaten, tyrannized, or governed with a high hand. Parents have no right to make them unhappy, but are to help them prepare at home for heaven and for the heavenly mansions, with no coarseness or unkindness where God's angels dwell. Their upbringing calls for patient tenderness, loving correction, and discipline free from anger or revenge, with father and mother working together to raise them in the Lord's instruction and in reverence for Him. Those who are themselves under God's discipline should change their home conduct, commend effort, and not make children unhappy, for harsh or careless discipline can turn them from religion and divine authority, with harmful effects that pass from parent to child. That kindness rests on solemn accountability, for parents are answerable to God for how they raise what is entrusted to them, since the children's future destiny depends largely on that faithful care.
The work is done by precept and example, with parents teaching by both instruction and the life they live in order to prepare children for heaven. Their words, conduct, and manners help shape the children's character and habits for life, and they are to guide them by the example they set with patience and kindness. A mother's faithful instruction, discipline, and godly example can lead her children to Christ and help them influence others for good, while neglect can leave them with harmful traits and influence that spread through families, society, and the church. That home education repeats the lessons Christ gave His disciples for the world, with the salvation of parents and children as the first great consideration of life, educating, training, and sanctifying them for the Master's service.
Training must begin in infancy, even in babyhood and in the first months, which are the most important period for bringing the child under control. Both father and mother must unite in requiring obedience always, teaching subjection to parents, repressing self-will, and shaping character through training and education in the earliest years. Letting the infant hold the lines and bend parents to its freaks and whims gives control to Satan, who understands the situation and works to take possession of the child's temper and disposition. They belong to God and not to parents as personal property, and this responsibility concerns their lives now and their eternal future, so that neglecting it will testify against parents at Christ's judgment seat.
They are to be kindly and patiently instructed, disciplined, and led step by step to Jesus, learning to love, fear, honor, trust, and obey God. God's Word is the light and instrument for that teaching, forming trust, obedience, and godly character as they are brought up in the Lord's nurture and admonition. That instruction must be diligent and vigilant, with an eye single to the glory of God, strictly guarding the interest of each soul, restraining bad tendencies and bad tempers, so that Satan does not deceive and allure them away from Christ. If one child in the family is unconscious of his sinful state, parents must not rest but search the word of God and by its light diligently examine everything in the home, searching their own hearts and examining their habits, practices, and management to find any mistake or error by which that soul is confirmed in impenitence. In this work parents cooperate with God and God cooperates with them in saving the souls of the children for whom Christ died, while Christian homes that neglect family discipline and training dishonor Him.
Care includes the body, for a mother has a duty to her children that requires preserving her health to care for them, and father and mother are accountable for how they treat, feed, instruct, and train them, including protecting them from harmful appetites and giving them godly care. Much of the misery and ruin, disease and early death that come upon the race might be prevented, for the power to deal with these evils rests to a great degree with parents by giving their children a good inheritance and then by right management seeking to remedy any wrong conditions of their birth; God does not desire the death of little children, and their removal is not a mysterious providence. Students also, as God's children entrusted to their keepers, must be cared for accordingly, including by providing them with good, solid, nourishing food prepared by thorough, hygienic cooking. No one person's ideas, tastes, customs, or habits are to control the table, and capable helpers under a matron in the kitchen with the very best thorough cook are to supply substantial food rather than much liquid food, pastries, and desserts prepared after European hotel fashion.
Church Shares the Charge
Children are the Lord's heritage, the lambs of the flock, and that trust belongs not to parents alone but also to the church, which must carry a burden for them and educate and train them to do service for God. Church schools are ordained by God for this purpose, to instruct children in the special truths for this time and in practical missionary work. There they are to be enlisted in the army of workers to help the sick and the suffering and to take part in medical missionary work, where even small investments and jots and tittles win souls to the truth. Rightly educated in this way they become standard-bearers in the army of the Lord and missionaries for the Master, placed under the most direct and favorable influences so their nurture, education, and training are not neglected.
That charge requires schools connected with choice teachers who have learned meekness and lowliness of heart in the school of Christ. Such teachers study from cause to effect and are patient, kind, sympathetic and impartial, doing toward students exactly as they would be done by and as Jesus would act, with no harshness and no partiality. College students too are God's heritage of children entrusted to those who care for them, a charge larger than one's own family that demands the highest care. Because they belong to God, no one person's ideas or tastes or customs or habits are to control the boarding-house table. Those in charge must obtain the very best thorough cook with a thorough knowledge of hygienic cooking, with capable helpers under a matron in the kitchen, and give students who pay for their board good solid nourishing food that supports their best work and takes away the very best intelligence of what hygienic cooking means, rather than much liquid food, pastries, and desserts prepared after European hotel fashion which are not proper food for hungry students with keen appetites for the most substantial food.
Their value was shown when Christ took little children in His arms and blessed them, so a forbidding attitude toward them displeases the Lord and they should be welcomed and cared for. The Lord loves them and died for them, and He is ready to do a great work for them if parents cooperate with Him in training and educating them according to His instruction. God honors the young and can use them for special work, choosing Joseph in youth, accepting Samuel when dedicated by his mother and giving the boy a solemn message while passing by the aged priest who failed to train his children, and holding up the childhood character of John the Baptist as encouragement to parents. The church must therefore remember Christ's words and example and must help and encourage mothers of children by praying with and for them.
To bring children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord is the greatest missionary work parents can perform, and the mother entrusted with them as the Lord's beautiful flock has a greater work than the king on his throne. Training them for His service is a solemn and sacred duty that parents and teachers must not neglect, since neglect makes them unfaithful servants. When the seed of truth is sown early in a child's heart and carefully tended, the labor bears fruit and there is a reward. Those prayed and worked for will be gathered into the heavenly harvest.